Top 10s

Patton Oswalt’s Top 10

Patton Oswalt is a stand-up comic, the instigator of the Comedians of Comedy tour, and voice star of Pixar’s Ratatouille. He wrote an appreciation of Allen Baron’s film Blast of Silence in Sean Phillips’s comic book Criminal (Phillips did the artwork for the Criterion edition).

Federico Fellini

Samuel Fuller

There are three terrific movies in the Eclipse set The First Films of Samuel Fuller, and the fact that they’re collected in this nifty package is a huge bonus. The Baron of Arizona plays like an old West episode of Blackadder—and features one of Vincent Price’s best performances.

Allen Baron

I’ve already written extensively about this lean, nasty little masterpiece. It’s on the list cuz you need to buy it. (To read an interview with artist Sean Phillips about the design of Blast of Silence and for a link to Patton’s writing about the film, click here.)

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

One of the better, funnier DVD menus I’ve ever seen—is it weird to recommend a DVD just for the menu? Plus, great commentary by Stephen Fry, plus background on the Colonel Blimp cartoon strip and creator, which shows you how miraculous this movie adaptation is. Imagine a big-screen version of Family Circus that manages to be a searing indictment of the American family. Wow!